1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a rotary electric machine including a stator coil formed by joining a plurality of coil pieces.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there is widely known a stator coil formed by joining a plurality of coil pieces (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2014-007795 (JP 2014-007795 A)). Each coil piece extends in the circumferential direction on the outer side of a stator core in the axial direction of the stator core. The distal ends of each coil piece are joined with the distal ends of other coil pieces by welding, or the like.
In the existing art, as shown in FIG. 11, each coil piece 32 extends in the circumferential direction, bends toward the outer side in the axial direction, and extends straight in the outward direction parallel to the axial direction. In this case, the coil end height is higher by a distance h1 by which each coil piece 32 extends toward the outer side in the axial direction. In the case of a rotary electric machine for which installation space is limited, such as a rotary electric machine that is mounted on an electric vehicle as a drive motor, such an increase in coil end height and, by extension, an increase in the size of the rotary electric machine, are major problems.